National Institute for Agronomic Study of the Belgian Congo

The National Institute for Agronomic Study of the Belgian Congo (Institut national pour l'étude agronomique du Congo belge (INÉAC), Nationaal Instituut voor de Landbouwkunde in Belgisch-Congo (NILCO) ) was a research facility established in Yangambi in the Belgian Congo, operating from 1933 to 1962. INEAC was established as a successor to the Régie des Plantations de la Colonie (REPCO). The INEAC experimental fields and research facilities were built along the north bank of the Congo River, and along a road stretching northward from the river for about . The goal of this institute was to follow a more scientific approach with regards to agricultural policies and innovations, and to promote the diffusion of agricultural innovations and know-how under the Congolese farmers. The creation of this institute was part of a larger 'indigenous peasantry programme'. This policy aimed to modernize indigenous agriculture by assigning plots of land to individual families (after rigorous prospection and soil analysis) and by providing them with government support in the form of selected seeds, agronomic advice, fertilizers, etc. The indigenous agricultural techniques were combined with new scientific discoveries, aimed at creating more efficient hybrid farming models and increasing the living standards in the traditional rural communities. In this way, the Institute for Agronomic Study of the Belgian Congo had a vast impact on the practical implementation of the social and economic agricultural policy of the colonial government. In the 1930s researchers at INÉAC found the relationship between the tenera, dura and pisifera oil palms. Oil palms have relatively low yield around Yangambi compared to coastal regions. This appears to be due to the lower night temperatures in the continental interior, which have a mean minimum at Yangambi of around . The scientific research undertaken by INÉAC played an essential role in improving the supply of rubber and palm oil in support of the war effort during World War II.